Wednesday, September 15, 2010

‎"Those who replace the personal, moral Christian God with a mysterious"supreme being" render null the conflict between good and evil, and sorob society of the impetus to constantly pursue the good: "If God doesnot have His own will, then good and bad end up being indistinguishable." Pope Benedict XVI

Don't you just love our Holy Father!!

This is so true!!! If God has no will, then good and bad are indistinguishable. And yet we know in our hearts that good and bad are indeed distinguishable. Even those who claim to believe in a kind of moral relativity do believe in a right and wrong. They believe in a truth. Otherwise, how could they assert that morality is relative to the person? If they believe that that is true then they believe in a truth.

Surely, this concept is a strong piece of evidence of the existence of God. We all believe in a right and a wrong-- even those who claim otherwise. We believe in good and evil. We recognize it, all the time, in our lives. A mysterious power could be good or evil or even neutral. How about the power of a black hole? Could such an enormous and mysterious power be considered superior to the power of Love? Is it greater than Love? No. Love is much more expansive, much brighter, much more real. In fact, love is more powerful. We all know this, although we can't explain it.

The Supreme Being must also have free will. It must be personal. Which is a higher state--that of a rock or that of a dog? A dog is higher because it has a kind of consciousness and free will. It has a brain that chooses, within certain limitations. Which is a higher being-- a dog or a human? A human is higher because it has greater reason, because it can create, as in music and art. It is higher because it can choose the good, even when that choice is contrary to its own self-interest.

Clearly, a Supreme Being must be personal or it could not be higher than a human being. A Supreme Being must be supreme---higher than a human being. We all acknowledge that there is a hierarchy of living things. A Supreme Being must be great, in every way, must have a higher capacity in every way, than those qualities of a human that make the human greater than all other animate objects.

Could the Supreme Being be an inanimate force as in Star Wars? How could it? It would be lacking in all those qualities that give a human being greater capacities than all other living things. Something that is not even living doesn't even come close. A Supreme Being must be supreme in every way.